


Homecoming

by idonthaveareallifeanymore (LysseC)



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: M/M, slightly AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-05-02 03:59:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5233211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LysseC/pseuds/idonthaveareallifeanymore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The house in Chiyoda-ku had always held a special significance to Ginoza, even through his darkest times.</p>
<p>Ginoza and Kougami's relationship seen through their living habits. Slightly AU as it includes headcanons for both the past and post-movie events, though nothing that outright contradicts canon events.</p>
<p>Written for Ginoza's birthday (November 21st).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. To Have and To Hold

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the headcanons I have used for this fic have been born through my roleplay interactions on Tumblr with @enforcer-shinya-kogami, who also helped me give this fic a decent appearance -aka, beta-read it. Precious son is precious and mom sends love <3<3<3<3<3

The idea comes from Kougami, and it's just like the most important decisions they will take together, abrupt and yet appealing, making Ginoza ponder it for a few days before jumping in. Hell if his friend would ever get to know it, but Kougami's constant work of convincing wouldn't have been necessary after all, because Ginoza can't really say no to him, in all truth.

They discuss it for a few weeks, consult their families, search for announcements, go around the city in an excited spree. They confront prices and locations, furnishing and expenses, and finally, after days of frustration when they don't find what suits their needs, or when what would do for them is just too far from their reach, they finally find it and sign the contract.

Chyioda-ku is well-served by public transport, there are parks for Ginoza to take long walks in and pubs for Kougami to drag his flatmate to, after he gets bored of strolling beside him between residents with dogs and children playing in the grass. There isn't a gym nearby, but Kougami can use the one at the Academy and save money anyway, so it's quite alright.

The apartment is not too big, not too small, perfect for two students who are going to graduate from university in a year or so and then enter the MWPSB training program. The rent is not too high if they split it in two, and they both have scholarships to cover it. There are two bedrooms, a kitchenette and a small living room, all furnished and ready for them to use.

It doesn’t take them much to take all their things there –Ginoza’s collection of plants goes on the balcony, Kougami’s books find the perfect place in the library in the living room, next to Ginoza’s most prized coins and a T-Rex plush named Rexie that Kougami didn’t have the heart to leave behind. Both the rooms have big wardrobes, and Kougami and Ginoza look at each other and wonder how the hell are they going to fill _those_ ones up.

The first night they spend there, their fridge is empty, and they order take-away from a Thai restaurant nearby. Kougami manages to sneak in a few beers for toasting to their new life as independent young men and ends up having to hold Ginoza's head over the toilet as he pukes all the dinner out, and then put him to bed. The next day, as a perfectly healthy Ginoza gives Kougami painkillers to fight his raging headache, Kougami will get to one knee and playfully declare his undying fidelity to the greatest flatmate he had the luck of ending up with.

There is enough room for Dime too, but Ginoza is reluctant to have the dog move in with them at first –he thinks it will be a bother to Kougami- but after a month of seeing him going back and forth between his grandmother’s house and Chyioda-ku to take care of the poor animal (to be honest, Ginoza’s grandmother is still well enough to look after Dime herself, but the student can’t really spend a day without scratching the dog's ears), Kougami convinces Ginoza to take him home.

Flatmate and dog become the best of friends, and every time the two students cross the door one after the other, hands loaded with groceries, and Dime barks to welcome them, Ginoza wonders if this is what coming home feels like.


	2. For Better, For Worse

It’s not like they never fight. Actually, it’s pretty much the opposite, and the reasons for arguing hide behind every corner, usually in the form of stuff Kougami has left out of the place Ginoza has carefully assigned it.

The only place Kougami got free-range rights on is the kitchen – _Ginoza can_ _’_ _t cook for shit_ , as Kougami elegantly put it once- provided that the room comes back as pristine as it was before he set his hands on pots, pans and whatever. More often than not, it’s Ginoza who takes care of it after they eat, but he considers it a good deal in exchange for a proper meal cooked by human hands. He will probably never admit it out loud, but he can taste the difference, and he doesn’t really care if the caloric intake is not that precisely calculated –they are young, their metabolism can survive a bit of a rough treatment, to put it in Kougami's words.

They take turns cleaning the house, and no one is surprised when Ginoza starts dragging Kougami around showing him the spots he missed and how to clean them properly. In a week or so of constant scolding, Kougami gets transformed into the perfect housewife.

There is a TV and a console in the living room, all property of Kougami, and they spend more than one night playing games (well, to be true, after a few tries, it's more like Ginoza spending the night watching Kougami play, because he realized how lost a cause he is after dying in the tutorial of all of Kougami’s first-person shooters). But there are also card games and board games, and in those it’s always a close call. The cupboard in the hall becomes their little storage for all the games they buy together, and there rarely is a night they don’t find themselves throwing playful insults at each other from opposite sides of the table. Or groaning in frustration at the assignments due for the next day.

Dime usually sits under the table, nuzzling their legs, and when Kougami complains that Ginoza had trained the dog to distract him, Ginoza replies that if he can’t concentrate on a card game because of a dog, how does he hope to concentrate when they will be on the field, a Dominator in hand?

It isn’t long before they actually get there, Inspector coats on their shoulders, assigned to different Divisions. It’s quite the change from their Academy times, when they almost spent the whole day together, and their living habits change together with their schedules. They can't do everything together as they were used to, but they still manage to find a way to handle things. Ginoza walks the dog in the morning, and there is always a bento waiting for him on the table. Kougami leaves a list of groceries next to it most of the times, and Ginoza comes back with bags full of food in the evening. When Kougami can't cook, Ginoza orders takeaway for two. Sometimes, Kougami convinces him to go get something to eat at the pub on the corner of the street.

Most of the time they get to spend at least the evening together, discussing cases and doing paperwork, until Kougami gets tired and drags Ginoza into one of their games. Or they just sit side-by-side on the couch, watching a movie together.

As they advance in their career, the time they have to relax together become less and less. More often than not, the table is covered in notes and files from their cases, instead of cards and board games. They argue more often, and it's always because of Kougami's involvement with their Enforcers. _You have to keep a distance_ , Ginoza tells him, _you don't want to end up like my father_.

But Kougami doesn't listen, and Ginoza keeps worrying for him in silence, praying that nothing bad will happen, and that he will always be able to come home to find Dime and something out of place to remind him of Kougami’s presence.


	3. For Richer, For Poorer

Now Ginoza wonders why Kougami had never suggested they each search for their own place to live, once they had finally graduated and actually got the job. It's only when the landlady asks him what he is planning to do- leave the house or search for another flatmate, now that the old one has become a latent criminal- that Ginoza realizes that with his salary as Inspector he can just cover all the rent by himself. The decision comes just like Kougami's ideas, sudden and strangely tempting, and Ginoza answers her on the spot. He is simply going to stay there alone, pay everything himself.

The day after he has to shoot Kougami as his best friend screams in front of Sasayama's mutilated body, Ginoza asks his grandmother to sleep at her place. He stays there for another week before finally setting foot on the train that takes him back to Chyioda-ku. In his hands, instead of bags of groceries, there are large boxes.

The books disappear, and so does the T-Rex plush. The games stay, but the cupboard collects dust, as do the console and TV, relocated in the empty bedroom, which Ginoza locks one day and never opens again, not even to use it for storage. Suddenly, with just a click of a lock, it's like the house is one room smaller.

The fridge empties, and the table is not covered in bags of groceries three days a week. The cooking robot, which had stood practically untouched for years on a high shelf in the kitchenette, is taken down and put in a more accessible spot. He has to call for a technician to repair it at first, because the years of disuse probably damaged it, but after that it starts working well, and Ginoza’s diet changes. He becomes slimmer, his face more excavated. Sometimes, he watches himself in the mirror in the bathroom (where now only a single set of towels and a solitary toothbrush make a show of themselves), and wonders if this is the cooking robot’s doing. Probably this means he had been eating too much until now, following flawed human reasoning instead of the exact calculations of the robotic house manager.

The house goes silent, except from Dime’s barking, which becomes much less frequent as the dog lost one of his playmates –actually, the louder one.

It’s also easier to clean it up, but Ginoza decides to buy a small cleaning robot, as his job becomes more and more demanding and he has to spend most of his time in Division One’s office. He starts staying there at nights too, resting his head on his desk when coffee can’t keep him awake anymore, counting on the neighbour, a kind old man who had taken a liking to the two students that had come to occupy the apartment, to come and feed Dime when he can't.

Ginoza's time in Chiyoda-ku reduces. Most of it is because of his job, but his walks with Dime suddenly become longer and longer. The dog seems to appreciate that, so it's easy for Ginoza to justify the change. And he visits his grandmother more often, telling himself she is getting older, and he has to spend as much time with her as possible.

And just like that, the apartment he now pays quite a high rent for rarely is graced with human presence anymore, and even though the heating never malfunctions, the rooms just appear colder and colder with each passing day. Coming back to Chyioda-ku and Dime’s low whining suddenly doesn’t feel like coming back home, anymore.


	4. In Sickness and In Health

_Given Kougami's state, maybe this is not a good idea_ , Ginoza thinks for a moment before the fugitive's mouth is on his again and his hands go down his pants. All coherent thought is lost after that. There is only a glimpse of regret for not having done this before, in one of their beds in Chyioda-ku, where it would have been more comfortable, when they still had a chance to make it last. Instead, they make love on a ragged sleeping bag thrown on a bench, forgetting about comfort or fancy lightings or nice settings, because that's their first and last time, and they both know it. And it hurts, oh if it hurts, because Kougami is wounded, and Ginoza is a virgin, and after years spent living together, it's only on a stolen night in Shambala, hiding from people that could kill them just by pulling the trigger of a Dominator, that they both realize how stupid they were, how easily they have forgone to take such a simple step.

And yet, Ginoza is thankful not to have wasted this chance too. Maybe, after all, it’s better like this. They don’t have Dime barking at the closed door, or more likely barging in since they probably would have forgotten to lock it. No leftovers from their dinner have been left on their plates, destined to fill the kitchen with their smell. There is not a pause screen of one of Kougami’s games illuminating the living room, there are no fallen cards and tokens scattered on the floor around the table when one of them had gotten up and kissed the other on the mouth.

How many times had Ginoza wanted Kougami to do just that? How many times had he wanted to do it himself but shrugged it off as a stupid thought born from tiredness? How many times had he suppressed his desire to the point he didn’t even know it was there?

Even now, after confessing his love, he had needed Kougami to take the first step, to draw their bodies closer. He had needed Kougami to ask him what he wanted. And even then, he couldn’t even formulate the words “ _Make love to me_ ”.

It doesn’t really matter, though, for love is what they make after all, even though they never say the word out loud. It’s too heavy, too loaded with promises they can’t keep, meanings they don’t want to explore. It’s just for one night after all, and it’s probably better to leave it all unlabeled.

A cargo is ready the next day to take Division One home, and Ginoza climbs on it with a neutral expression on his face, hoping no one notices how stiffly he walks and sits, and that his left hand is always kept in his pocket. His glove was gone when he woke up that morning, a set of dog tags left behind in his metal hand.

That night Dime jumps happily around his legs to welcome him back and Ginoza absentmindedly scratches his ears, but something is off in his demeanor. Suddenly, he thinks that more than coming home, he has just left the home his heart had found, on a ragged sleeping bag quickly tossed to cover a cold bench in an abandoned warehouse in Shambala Float.


	5. Till Death Do Us Part

Saying the last words of the vow is probably the hardest thing, because they both know that death may just be awaiting them behind the corner. It can be one of the criminals they hunt on a daily basis, or it can be a Dominator, were one of them to gaze too deep into the abyss.

But after all they have gone through, it would be a shame to stop now, just because of a stupid word in a stupid vow.

The hardest thing was finding a place for all of Kougami’s books. The library is smaller than the old one, and Kougami’s collection has grown much bigger. Now they are fighting for space with Ginoza’s plants, because the Enforcers’ quarters don’t have a big balcony like the one in Chyioda-ku. Then there is the issue of training machines, and Dime’s bed, and old file cases, most filled with notes written in an unintelligible handwriting, courtesy of Sasayama.

“ _We_ _’_ _ll have to convince the higher-ups to move us into wider quarters if we are going to have children_ ” Kougami says at some point, and Ginoza only gives him a stern look from over a box full of pans, glasses, dishes and other flatware. _That is never going to happen_ , Ginoza thinks, he is just too unsuited to be a father. And yet, the idea keeps nagging him, and it has Masaoka's face and his voice telling him " _I've always wanted grandkids_ ". And there is this name, Arata, his grandmother has planted in his brain... Ginoza shakes his head, and decides he'll think about it later. There are more pressing matters to think about now.

The console and TV are gone, and so is Rexie, the old plush, all lost at some point when the apartment in Chyioda-ku had to be emptied while Ginoza was stranded on a hospital bed to get his arm replaced- and to see his Psycho Pass settling at a number that sealed his fate. Most of their games are nowhere to be found too, pieces of a past that has been shattered too many years ago.

But it’s not that bad after all. What’s done is done, the past is past. It’s the future they are looking to, right now, even if they are thirty-six and their situation is precarious at best.

It’s hard vowing like that, when Ginoza is an Enforcer who barely avoided punishment for disappearing that night, in Shambala, and Kougami is an ex-fugitive for whose reinstatement in Division One Akane had to pull one too many strings. It’s hard making promises for a lifetime, when they don’t know what life can throw upon them in the matter of a second, be that a case like the one that broke their Division apart, killing Sasayama first, then Ginoza's father, or Sibyl’s judgement suddenly turning too harsh.

It’s hard, but Kougami is looking at him with shining grey eyes, and Ginoza says the words, just like Kougami did a minute before. They kiss, and just like that they are married, one of the first couples to take advantage of the much discussed reform with which the Sibyl System legalized latent criminal unions.

Akane is crying, just like Ginoza’s grandmother and Kougami’s mother, Shion and Yayoi are holding hands and the whole Division is cheering, together with a crowd of colleagues –even Shimotsuki is trying to put up a happy face.

Ginoza won’t remember much of the party they hold in one of the Nona Tower meeting halls, but he remembers the walk back to their quarters, hand in hand, flesh fingers entwined with metal ones. There is not a glove covering Ginoza’s prosthetic –there hasn’t been one since Kougami peeled it off that night of two years ago, saying “ _You don_ _’_ _t need this, Gino_ ”. Now that glove is resting in plain sight on one of their shelves, together with Kougami’s dog tags and an electronic photo frame. Neither of them knows it yet, but soon a third face is going to join theirs on that screen, Kougami's eyes framed by locks of black hair and Ginoza's nose and mouth, as little Kougami Arata pouts and smiles and tugs at his fathers' clothes, holding Rexie, the heroic plush found again only Sibyl knows where thanks to Kougami's mother, in one hand.

For now, though, they just open the doors to their quarters, and Dime barks happily to welcome them. The dog doesn’t follow them to the bedroom, even if in their haste they forget and leave the door unlocked. They don’t sleep much that night, and when he wakes up the next day, Kougami’s face buried in his neck, their naked bodies entwined, Ginoza looks up at the ceiling and finally thinks “ _I_ _’_ _m home_ ”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaannnd, this is done! Happy Birthday, Gino!!

**Author's Note:**

> As this fic has been planned for Ginoza's birthday, I will publish one chapter a day, up until November 21st.


End file.
